Lutfur’s irony and a data-map of surnames in Tower Hamlets

1. Peter Golds has pointed out the irony of this post nine days ago on Axel Landin’s Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s blog. It’s headlined “Bring Back British Rail” (the author was clearly too young to remember BR):

Yesterday saw a national day of action by transport unions and passengers to protest fair (sic) hikes and service cuts across the railways. I salute them. British train passengers already pay among the highest fares in Europe for train travel and now the government has announced that train operating companies will be able to increase rail fares by three per cent more than inflation.

For the last two weeks we have seen government figures in Westminster and London figures basking in the borrowed glory of the Olympics that their Labour predecessors secured for city and the country.

One tangible related benefit of that much touted but hardly touched Olympic Legacy has been the development of transport links across the previously cut off poor areas of East London – and on its way is the Crossrail link which ties in the area to the greater region.

And now it is back to dismal normality with the announcement of 11% rail fare rises. We will indeed be better linked to the rest of the Capital and the world. But far too many of our citizens will not be able to afford the tickets.

It is going to mean price hikes on rush hour travel, season tickets and on off-peak fares on the majority of intercity journeys. Passengers will get worse quality and less safe service for their higher fares.

This is all a direct result of rail privatisation. As we saw with the spectacular failure of G4S Security, the conservative idea of so called “private enterprise” is to take national and civic assets, milk them with subsidies, dividends and bonuses, and then call upon the public sector to rescue them from the consequences of greed and imcompetence. One study “Rebuilding Rail, Transport for Quality of Life” shows that rail privatisation costs over than £1bn a year.

During the Olympics, we saw that the rail infrastructure was already running close to capacity. But despite that the success of Ken’s policies, like the Oyster Card, the bicycle lanes and the congestion charges had kept people off the roads and carbon dioxide out of the air.

We need more investment in public transport, cheaper fares to coax more passengers out of cars – and less money for bonuses. As the RMT’s Bob Crowe says “The campaign to Bring Back British Rail is an idea whose time has come.”

Peter was particularly struck by this paragraph (my emphasis):

During the Olympics, we saw that the rail infrastructure was already running close to capacity. But despite that the success of Ken’s policies, like the Oyster Card, the bicycle lanes and the congestion charges had kept people off the roads and carbon dioxide out of the air.

Whoever wrote the article needs to get some basic command of the English language. Surely ” milk them with subsidies, dividends and bonuses” should have ” of ” instead of ” with “. This is all pretty basis stuff that student at one of our leading universities or a solicitor should know. Especially a solicitor, as one phrase means nothing and the other has legal connotations.

I also see that Tower Hamlets weekly dose of mogadon AKA East End Life in a two page article on the ceremony thanking the troops for their part in the Olympics has deleted the Mayor’s slur on the opposition councillors who were informed too late to turn up. Proof positive that the publication is simply a mouthpiece for the Mayor and his IFE/business backers.

Reference the map you are as silent on the matter of episode six of The Secret History of Our Streets as is Lutfur. Perhaps you could give a link to the programme on You Tube. I will also send you a copy on DVD. A bit of real social history, not the ersatz version of the race relations industry.

However for the benefit of the readers of this blog I thought I would share a delightful experience I had trying to speak to our local council…

I am annoyed because I receive a letter from the Planning Department at LBTH regarding an application to construct two additional floors on top of 159 Commercial Street (a building in a conservation area) telling me that the matter has been referred to the Planning Inspectorate at DCLG because of “the council’s failure to determine the application within the statutory time period”. The reason for this “failure” was because the planning officer was unable to gain access to the building… why, one might ask… given that I found out who the owner was within five minutes and spoke to them about their plans myself.

Anyway, I am then told that the issue regarding the street outside is actually matter for the Highways Department so I try to speak to the Highways department via the automated switchboard but the line goes dead. I then speak to an operator who tells me that the system is “totally useless” and he then connects me to another dead line. Three calls later and I demand to speak the CEO. I then get put through to the office of the CEO to be told there is in fact no CEO. I then ask who is and the lady tells me that I should look at the website because all the information you need is on there. I then tell her that the website says it is Aman Dalvi and she goes “oh well, it’s wrong.” So I am left wondering why I should refer to the website when it is factually wrong about something so important (the website, by the way, is run by the well-paid Taki Suleiman). This lady then very reluctantly tells me that the council is now run “collectively” without any CEO… the collective consists of Steve Halsey (Head of Paid Services, including Highways among other things), Isabella Freeman (Head of Legal), Isabel Catermole (Schools), Aman Dalvi (Development & Renewal, consisting of Planning and Housing), Chris Naylor (Finance), Steve Codey (Head of Health and Wellbeing) and Taki Suleiman. They have meetings “about” once a week.

I ask then to speak to Aman Dalvi only to be told “he is on leave”. I then ask to speak to his P.A. to be told “she is on leave”. I then ask to speak to whoever is covering for them, to be told “I am…but I am only a temp and I don’t know the answers to your questions.” I then ask to speak to Steve Halsey only to be told “he is also on leave”. Finally I ask to speak to Owen Walley (Head of Planning, under Aman Dalvi) to be told “he too is on leave”. I then ask aloud who on earth I can speak to about this planning issue to be told “I don’t know.

Why do we pay council tax? Eric Pickles, if you read this:- Tower Hamlets is a total failure and a disgrace. Please place the borough under the control of the Governor of the Tower of London or the Deputy Lord Lieutenant or someone else capable and responsible or else I think local rate payers have every right not to continue paying their council tax.

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